Stirling Properties and JCH Development, which are developing a 138,000-square-foot, two-level shopping center on South Claiborne Avenue, have begun work on a small auxiliary project that will include a Capital One bank branch, the firms announced Monday. They also said that the larger shopping center, known as Magnolia Marketplace, is 78 percent leased.

Jordi Goodman, development manager for Stirling Properties, said the 6,000-square-foot first phase will occupy the entire riverside blockface of South Claiborne between Fourth Street and Washington Avenue. It will include the 3,000-square-foot Capital One branch with three drive-through lanes.

Construction of the first phase is expected to be finished by Nov. 1, with the bank due to open by late 2013 or early 2014, Goodman said.

Construction of the main shopping center will begin this fall, with completion expected by late 2014. The center will occupy the riverside of Claiborne between Washington and Toledano Street. The stores in it will face Claiborne but will be well back from the street, with several fast-food restaurants and other buildings, including a church, between Claiborne and the shopping center.

"We are proud to bring a high-quality development to a severely underserved portion of the Claiborne corridor and return yet another vacant and blighted property in the city to commerce," Goodman said in announcing the previously undisclosed first phase of the overall project.

"Our team is excited to introduce new services and shopping experiences in a location that is accessible to the neighborhood as well as to all of New Orleans' residents," said Tara Hernandez, president of JCH Development, Stirling Properties' partner in the joint venture.

Stirling and JCH said they have secured leases with established national retail tenants for 108,000 square feet of the 138,000-square-foot main shopping center. Planned tenants include Ross Dress for Less, T.J. Maxx, Michaels, PetSmart, Shoe Carnival and Ulta beauty products, plus a Raising Cane's fast-food restaurant.

Goodman said talks to lease the final 30,000 square feet of retail space are "in the final stages of negotiation."

Townsend Underhill, a vice president of Stirling Properties, told the City Planning Commission in December that retailers have agreed to pay "top-dollar rents" to be in the new center.

Leasing information is available from Rhonda Sharkawy at rsharkawy@stirlingprop.com or 504.523.4481.

Part of the shopping center's site formerly was part of the C.J. Peete public housing
complex, originally known as the Magnolia complex -- hence the name Magnolia Marketplace. In recent years the aging Peete complex was mostly demolished and
replaced with 460 housing units in 119 new two-family and
multiple-family buildings. The developers of the new complex, known as
Harmony Oaks, have endorsed plans for the shopping center.